Three terrorists were killed Tuesday night when they tried to infiltrate the Galilee panhandle, south of Kibbutz Manara.
An Israel Defense Force soldier was seriously wounded in the clash that ensued after an army squad intercepted the terrorists a few yards from the Lebanon border, inside Israeli territory.
The IDF unit was warmly praised by Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chief of Staff Dan Shomron for acting to avert what could have been a serious attack against civilians, with heavy casualties.
Army sources pointed out that the infiltrators had not attacked the soldiers, but were lying in wait quietly, until the patrol passed. Their apparent intent was to attack civilian targets.
Al Fatah, the terrorist arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization, announced Wednesday in Beirut that its members had carried out the infiltration attempt.
Meanwhile, the IDF has apprehended three members of a terrorist gang responsible for attacking and wounding an Israeli army reserve soldier in August 1986, an IDF spokesperson announced Wednesday.
One of the detainees is a resident of the Sur Baher neighborhood of Jerusalem and the two others are from Nazareth. A fourth member of the quartet has escaped into Egypt, security sources said.
The soldier, 46-year-old Yosef Levy of Kibbutz Usha in the Galilee, had been hitchhiking when the terrorists picked him up and attacked him with knives. But Levy managed to escape from the vehicle.
The gang had planned to carry out other attacks, interrogation of its members disclosed.
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